May Day in Moscow

The older you get, the more things remain the same.

It’s certainly not true in my life, particularly as I passed my whatever-number-birthday yesterday. But long, long ago in Moscow, they used to have parades on May Day, which I always found humorous coming from a Russian-American family, as though they were marching in honor on me.

Since 1991, the year that Communism bit the dust, there has been no military parade. For 23 years, no missiles and no soldiers marched through the streets.

Well, Comrade, that’s all changed.

Similar to any country experiencing political unrest from within, a common outside enemy must be found. There it was, Crimea staring down the Kremlin.

And Putin struck. And many of his people are cheering, a pretty natural patriotic reaction. Hence, the parade.

So, Moscow’s mayor assured that it was not a return to Communist times, while denying a permit for the anti-Putin opposition forces to hold their own rally in a few days’ time. Sounds fairly same-old, same-old to me.